City discusses student housing issues
Oread Neighborhood Association, commissioners look to solve problems
City commissioners and members of the Oread Neighborhood Association met Wednesday to discuss solutions to problems in the student-populated area. Neighborhood members complained previously of excessive student partying, blight and unkept housing.
Thursday, November 8th, 2007
City Commissioners met with the Oread Neighborhood Association Wednesday for a study session to discuss solutions for the student-populated neighborhood’s problems of unkept housing and excessive partying.
“It’s not a meeting to attack students,” Candice Davis, Oread Neighborhood Association vice president, said. “It’s helping to make the area be more desirable.”
Davis said because the neighborhood, located directly east of campus, housed both families and college students, it faced complex situations.
The neighborhood, which consists of about 96 percent rental properties, has problems because it doesn’t have many year-long residents who give it a more livable, responsible environment, she said.
Davis said the neighborhood was on the national registry of historic places and was a jewel to the city of Lawrence that was in jeopardy of being lost. She said if the area had dilapidated homes and trash, it wasn’t a good thing for Lawrence as well as residents of the neighborhood.
The association discussed the option of rental registration, which would allow the city to keep track of who rented out properties, and allow inspections to be made. Davis said she thought that rental registration could help solve current health and safety issues with temporary residents. Parking permits were also discussed to control the high number of cars parked on the streets.
Members also addressed the concern of excessive partying within the neighborhood. Beth Reiber, association member, said the neighborhood was essentially the Lawrence nightlife for students, especially those who were underage and couldn’t drink downtown. Association members said they would like to see additional law enforcement and cooperation from the University because of the close proximity to campus, and because the majority of residents were students.
Commissioner Rob Chestnut said he joined police officers on a ride along during the past weekend. He said he realized that allocation of resources was very important.
“That’s the challenge,” Chestnut said. “We have a time window between 1:30 and 3 in the morning and we have establishments in the community emptying out. It would have to be a mass force because it’s so prevalent at that time. It’s a resource issue.”
City manager Dave Corliss agreed and called the neighborhood a “party atmosphere,” suggested looking into a safety initiative for the area. The commissioners and association members agreed to look further into how to solve the problems, especially the trash and blight in the neighborhood.
Davis said the neighborhood had a lot of problems from residents not caring how the area looked. She said the beer bottles, red plastic cups and trash from weekend parties hurt the neighborhood and the Lawrence community.
“Having kids pee and throw up in your yard isn’t pleasant,” Davis said.
Edited by Meghan Murphy
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